Opening a NinjaTrader Trading Account in Australia

How to use the Ninja Trader platform in Australia

NinjaTrader is one of the most popular trading platforms for futures and forex day traders. If you're a day trader in Australia and want to use NinjaTrader, here's the process.

Why NinjaTrader?

The NinjaTrader trading platform is simple to use, and designed for traders who want to customize their platform for quick trade executions and efficiency.

It's customizable and allows you to build strategies so stop loss and target orders are sent out as soon as you enter a trade. This feature is recommended for all day traders; if you lose your internet connection, your data provider goes down or you disconnect from your broker, those stop losses and targets may help you avoid a financial catastrophe.

Try a demo and receive an information package

The first thing to do is try out a demo account. On the NinjaTrader.com website click Trade Futures or Trade FX, depending on your preferred market. Scroll down and fill out the information for a demo account. Use a real email address so you receive your login information, and input Australia as your country (or if you're from another country, input your real country so you get the proper information package).

This will redirect you to a page where you can download NinjaTrader as well as beneficial guides. Downloading these guides, such as "connection guide" is recommended in case you need them later.

Login credentials will be emailed to you, along with information on downloading the platform if you don't already have it.

Learning about NinjaTrader

NinjaTrader offers many tools and functions. Browse through the Video Library for tutorials on the various features of the platform.

One of the best features for day traders, aside from nearly endless add-ons for trading, is the Market Replay. The Market Replay feature lets you download past trading sessions and trade them as if you were trading live, in real-time. It's an awesome learning tool and allows you accelerate your learning by trading multiple sessions in a single day.

Setting up a NinjaTrader account

In addition to your demo account login credentials, which allow you to try out the software, you will also receive some information on setting up a real trading account if you wish to do so.

The information will come from NinjaTrader Brokerage.

The minimum deposit to open a futures trading account, with NinjaTrader Brokerage, is USD$1,000. The minimum deposit for a forex account is USD$2,000.

For popular day trading futures such as the S&P 500 emini (ES) the day trading margins are $500. Commissions vary between $0.53 and $0.95 per contract, depending on whether you buy the NinjaTrader platform, lease it or use the free version.

If you trade forex and open a forex account via the emails sent to you when you signed up for the demo account, your live account will be opened with FXCM Australia. Commissions with FXCM Australia begin at $0.03 per 1000 in currency traded ($3 per 100,000 traded, $6 round trip).

A lifetime license for NinjaTrader costs $999 (or four monthly payments of $299). It can be leased for $600 per year, $330 for six months, or $180 quarterly (prices in USD). You can also use NinjaTrader for free, but commissions will be slightly higher, as discussed above.

Other Australian brokers that support NinjaTrader

Intelligent Financial Markets and MB Trading both offer NinjaTrader as a trading platform option. If you already have an account with these brokers (or want to open one) you can switch to/use the NinjaTrader platform, if you wish.

Final word on using NinjaTrader in Australia

If you want to day trade with NinjaTrader in Australia you have a number of options. For easy and seamless integration with NinjaTrader, going with NinjaTrader Brokerage and/or FXCM Australia (for forex) is a popular option. NinjaTrader is also offered by Intelligent Financial Markets and MB Trading. If unsure about which way to go, open a demo account and see which you like best.